It looks like the nation will go over both the fiscal and the dairy cliffs, but maybe not for long. Amidst reports that the Senate will vote later this evening on the “fiscal cliff” bill, but the House will not vote on the legislation until Tuesday, prospects for an extension of the 2008 farm bill remain uncertain, particularly because House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., appear opposed to inclusion of a new dairy program.
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The National Famers Union and the American Farmland Trust today called the unwillingness of Congress to finish a farm bill this year a lost opportunity.
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The Congressional Budget Office has released its score for an extension of the 2008 farm bill until September 30, 2013, and the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition has issued a revised statement of its views on the bill.
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House Agriculture Committee ranking member Collin Peterson, D-Minn., today endorsed a one-year farm bill extension that would include a new dairy support program. Read More...

Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., has issued a statement saying that if Congress does not pass a new farm bill by Monday night, she would back the extension bill that House Agriculture Committee Chairman Frank Lucas, R-Okla., announced earlier today. Read More...

House Agriculture Committee Chairman Frank Lucas, R-Okla., urged passage of a one-year extension of the 2008 farm bill, but the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition said today that House Republican leaders had filed three different versions of an extension, and that each is problematic. Read More...

Enviromental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson, who made several pro-ethanol decisions key to the economy in rural America, but who ran into conflict with some farm leaders and Republicans over regulations, announced today that she will resign. Read More...

Decorating the White House for Christmas and entertaining official Washington during the month of December has long been a tradition and a job for presidents, but this year there are a few agriculturally-oriented angles that are befitting for First Lady Michelle Obama, whose kitchen garden has become world-famous. Read More...

The Agriculture Department Thursday announced a much-awaited final rule on animal disease traceability, and the initial reactions of groups with an interest in it was positive. Read More...

The situation surrounding the “fiscal cliff” legislation and any possibility that the farm bill will be included in it became extremely murky today after House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, failed to convince House Republicans to support his bill to extend tax rates for all but people with incomes over $1 million, sent House members home with no clear plan to return, and announced that the next steps are up to the Senate and President Barack Obama. Read More...

House Agriculture Committee Chairman Frank Lucas, R-Okla., late Thursday announced a reorganization of subcommittees for the next Congress and named the chairmen, while ranking member Collin Peterson, D-Minn., announced some new Democratic members of the committee. Read More...

A bipartisan group of 14 members of the House Agriculture General Farm Commodities and Risk Management Subcommittee sent members of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission a letter today stressing that they are very concerned that a lack of coordination between both foreign and domestic regulators could soon lead to a disruption of the global derivatives markets. Read More...

President Barack Obama today will nominate Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., to succeed Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, the Los Angeles Times reported today. Read More...

The Senate Democratic Caucus Thursday elected Sen. Barbara Mikulski, D-Md., as chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee. Read More...

House Agriculture Committee ranking member Collin Peterson, D-Minn., said Thursday that he is not worried about going over the “fiscal cliff” next month, and said that even dairy prices should not be affected immediately. Read More...

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack on Wednesday promised to speed up the Agriculture Department’s regulatory process as he took his campaign to encourage a revitalization of rural America to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
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With the farm bill apparently stalled, House Agriculture Committee ranking member Collin Peterson, D-Minn., will appear on the national radio program AgriTalk today at 11:15 a.m. EST. Read More...

The Agriculture Department and the Chinese Ministry of Agriculture on Wednesday “made a commitment to a biotechnology pilot program, which could provide greater cooperation in the approval process for new products,” and affirmed new access for pears in the Chinese marketplace through the commitment to allow reciprocal trade between the two countries beginning in 2013, a USDA spokesman said in an email late in the day. Read More...

The Save Our Crops Coalition this week petitioned the Environmental Protection Agency to establish residue tolerances for the pesticide dicamba for a broad range of food crops, and the makers of the product have responded. Read More...

The European Union's Antidumping Advisory Committee, composed of representatives from the EU member states, endorsed a 9.6 percent penalty on U.S. ethanol exports to Europe on Wednesday, but the Renewable Fuels Association and Growth Energy said that the endorsement is only one step in the process. Read More...